1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a wire harness for an instrument panel of a vehicle, more particularly to a wire harness which simplifies a wiring manner in a vehicle and an assembly procedure of making electrical and mechanical connection between various electrical components and the wire harness.
2. Prior Art
FIG. 7 shows a prior art wiring manner associated with an instrument panel (referred to as panel hereafter) of a vehicle and FIG. 8 is an illustrative diagram thereof.
in FIGS. 7-8, a meter panel M, in which the various meters are incorporated, is secured to a panel P for transmitting various information to an operator of the vehicle. These information are supplied mainly from sensor etc. in an engine room E.
Around the meter panel M are provided a large number of electrical components including various switches s, control device u such as units and relays, and loads r such as motors, a cigar-lighter, and lighting bulbs, each being connected to a wire harness Wd on a dash board D side (vehicle body ) or to a wire harness Wp on the panel P side.
Since most of the information sources are in the engine room as mentioned above, it is desirable to directly connect a harness We on engine-room side with the harness Wp on the panel side. It is, however, practically difficult. Thus the harness Wd is first installed on the body D then the harness We is connected thereto; the panel P is mounted to the body D; then the harness w1, w2 etc. branching from the Wd are drawn out to be connected with individual meters on the meter panel M; thereafter the meter panel M is mounted on the panel P. Such wiring methods must allow a relatively long play in length of the branching harnesses w1, w2 etc. for facilitating assembly work, thus requiring a large housing space. Thus this prior art wiring method involves a complexity of assembly steps including assembling the panel P to the body D and then assembling the meter panel to the panel.
FIG. 9 illustrates another method of mounting the wire harnesses Wd,Wp and the meter panel M. In the figure, the harness Wd is first installed on the body D; the panel P is mounted to the body D; then the harness Wp is connected to the harness We by means of a harness Wj and then to the harness Wd; then the harness w1', w2' etc. branching from the Wp are drawn out to be connected with individual meters on the meter panel M; thereafter the meter panel M is mounted on the panel P; then the panel P is mounted to the body D, thereby connecting the harness Wd on the body side with the harness Wp on the panel side. This wiring method, however, necessitates not only the a harness Wj for interconnecting the We and Wp but also extra wires and joints for both the harness Wd and the harness Wp, resulting in bulky, complex wire harnesses.